This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-333923, filed on Oct. 31, 2000, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic apparatus and more particularly to an electrophotographic apparatus using liquid developer having a carrier liquid removal device for collecting and removing a vaporized carrier liquid.
(2) Description of the Related Art
An electrophotographic apparatus using a liquid developer has advantages which cannot be realized by a dry type electrophotographic apparatus and its value has been reviewed recently. For example, a liquid developer is used to disperse toner particles in a carrier liquid, so that the points that a high image quality can be realized because extremely fine toner particles of sub-micron size can be used, and the liquid developer is economical because sufficient image density can be obtained by a small amount of toner particles and moreover, a texture similar to print (for example, offset print) can be realized, and energy conservation can be realized because toner particles can be fixed to a recording form at a comparatively low temperature are main advantages of an electrophotographic apparatus using liquid developer over the dry type.
On the other hand, some essential problems are included in the conventional electrophotographic art using a liquid developer, consequently the dry type art has been unrivaled over a long period of time.
For example, as the aforementioned carrier liquid, a highly resistant or insulating liquid must be used and a petroleum solvent must be used as a carrier liquid. This petroleum solvent is highly volatile and gives off a bad smell, so that the use in an office or a room cannot be realized.
Various methods for processing a highly volatile carrier liquid are carried out conventionally and for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open 48-82835, vapor of a carrier liquid in the cabinet is sucked in, liquified, and collected so as to suppress it from ejection outside the cabinet. However, a method for liquefying and collecting carrier liquid vapor by cooling is adopted and in this case, to cool the carrier liquid, water vapor mixed in the carrier liquid vapor must be cooled at the same time and the collection efficiency of carrier liquid vapor is bad. Further, in addition to the liquefying method, there is a method for adsorbing and collecting carrier liquid vapor by a collection agent such as activated carbon. However, the collection characteristic of activated carbon for an early very short period is good, while after a lapse of the period, the collection characteristic lowers suddenly, and stable collection of carrier liquid vapor becomes difficult, and when activated carbon is used as a collection agent, the collection amount of a carrier liquid is not found visually, so that a problem arises that it is difficult to make a schedule of exchange of the collection agent.
As mentioned above, in a conventional elelctrophotographic apparatus using liquid developer, for example, carrier liquid vapor is collected and removed using a removal agent such as activated carbon, though a problem arises on activated carbon that the reduction in collection capacity of carrier liquid vapor is not found visually.
The present invention was developed with the foregoing problems in view and is intended to provide an elelctrophotographic apparatus using liquid developer having a carrier liquid removal device which can easily make a schedule of exchange of the removal agent.
The present invention uses a solution of cyclodextrin as a removal agent of carrier liquid vapor generated in the cabinet of the elelctrophotographic apparatus during liquid development.
The electrophotographic apparatus of the present invention is an elelctrophotographic apparatus having an electrostatic latent image holding device, an image forming device which forms an electrostatic latent image on the latent image holding device and developing the electrostatic latent image by a liquid developer having a carrier liquid and toner particles dispersed in the carrier liquid, a cabinet for housing the electrostatic latent image holding device and image forming device, and a carrier liquid removal device which removes carrier liquid vapor vaporized and generated in the cabinet and the carrier liquid removal device has an atomizer for spraying a cyclodextrin solution into gas containing the aforementioned carrier liquid vapor as a removal agent for removing the carrier liquid vapor.
The electrophotographic apparatus of the present invention is an elelctrophotographic apparatus having an image forming device which forms an electrostatic latent image on a latent image holding device and developing the electrostatic latent image by a liquid developer having a carrier liquid and toner particles dispersed in the carrier liquid, a cabinet for housing the electrostatic latent image holding device and image forming device, and a carrier liquid removal device for removing a carrier liquid evaporation component generated by evaporation of the carrier liquid from the cabinet and the carrier liquid removal device has a removal container having an inlet for introducing the mixed gas and an outlet for ejecting residual gas after the carrier liquid evaporation component is removed, an atomizer which sprays a solution containing cyclodextrin for producing a solid inclusion compound in contact with the carrier liquid in the removal container, a separator which separates the unreacted cyclodextrin solution collected in the liquid removal container from the solid component, and a circulator which circulates and resprays the solution separated by the separator in the atomizer.
The carrier liquid removal device of the electrophotographic apparatus of the present invention is a carrier liquid removal device for removing the evaporation component generated by evaporation of the carrier liquid in the cabinet for housing the image forming device for developing an electrostatic latent image by a liquid developer having a carrier liquid and toner particles dispersed in the carrier liquid, which has a removal container having an inlet for introducing gas containing the carrier liquid evaporation component and an outlet for ejecting residual gas after the carrier liquid evaporation component is removed, a first gas phase separation filter arranged at the inlet, a second gas phase separation filter arranged at the outlet, and an atomizer which sprays a cyclodextrin solution in the removal container.